Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[loves to dive]

Some experiences are returning soon, including indoor socially distanced character meet and greets as well as Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular!

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...his-fall/?CMP=SOC-DPFY22Q1wo0930211006210045C
Over the past year, beloved Disney Characters have been popping up in cavalcades, motorcades, flotillas, and surprise sightings, much to the delight of our guests, and I’m pleased to tell you many of those experiences will be continuing. Although the environment is not right just yet for hugs and autographs, you’ll soon be able to have individualized time with some of your favorite characters, getting to visit with them in a themed location and snap a photo or two. Look for the Disney Princesses to return to Princess Fairytale Hall in Magic Kingdom Park. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you’ll soon find Minnie Mouse at Red Carpet Dreams and the stars of Disney Junior in Animation Courtyard. And when you stop in to see Mickey Mouse backstage at Town Square Theater on Main Street, U.S.A., he’ll be sporting his all-new EARidescent look designed just for the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Celebration! Each of these locations is planned to start welcoming guests in November.

So glad the entertainers are coming back to Epcot, I love just sitting on a bench with a refreshing adult beverage and watching. And darn it to heck, Indy begins on Dec. 17 and I'll be there that week but leaving on the 17th. Love me some Indy. Oh well, planning on going back some time in Feb. for Festival of the Arts so I'll see it then.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Are there any new threads on the new MK dessert parties?

 

[starstruck93]

Following. We will be in MK on the 7th and I'm anxious to hear whether or not the quick service food venues are as backed up as they were on the 1st. We made no ADRs and had planned on snacking our way around MK. If it's a 2 hr wait for every counter service "snack", that's gonna be tough! May have to change plans and leave for a QS or sit down at one of the monorail resort food venues.

I heard Len Testa (on his podcast) talking about the day the phone quick service went down.... it was awful! He said some people were waiting 2 hours and finally they completely cut off the on-line service and cast members came out with pencil and paper to take orders! I really hope they have this fixed by December!

 

[CBMom01]

I heard Len Testa (on his podcast) talking about the day the phone quick service went down.... it was awful! He said some people were waiting 2 hours and finally they completely cut off the on-line service and cast members came out with pencil and paper to take orders! I really hope they have this fixed by December!

I don’t mean to be a jerk but why world anyone wait 2 hours for food rather than leave and come back

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Are there any new threads on the new MK dessert parties?

https://www.disboards.com/threads/magic-kingdom-fireworks-parties.3852420/

 

[starstruck93]

I don’t mean to be a jerk but why world anyone wait 2 hours for food rather than leave and come back

I'm with you on this!! I sure wouldn't!

 

[Lsdolphin]

https://www.disboards.com/threads/magic-kingdom-fireworks-parties.3852420/

Thank you!

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Thank you!

Here's another one too...
https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...alifornia-grill.3852440/page-10#post-63427878

 

[Tonyz]

I don’t mean to be a jerk but why world anyone wait 2 hours for food rather than leave and come back

We’ve got a few people in this fanbase that ain’t the brightest bulbs on the tree…

 

[robinstrip]

I don’t mean to be a jerk but why world anyone wait 2 hours for food rather than leave and come back

Because they were afraid if they left MK they couldn't get back in for the fireworks. They ended up letting people back in, but people didn't want to chance missing it.

 

[CBMom01]

Because they were afraid if they left MK they couldn't get back in for the fireworks. They ended up letting people back in, but people didn't want to chance missing it.

Think we’re talking about different days, but I can see that on Oct 1. That was crazy

 

[SCDisneyfanatic]

This may seem like a strange question...but is WDW accepting cash in the parks or do you need to use a Magic Band or Credit Card?

 

[robinb]

I just returned from a super-quick 3 day trip. I was VERY pleasantly surprised to see that Genie hasn't started and that the BLISSFFUL no FP lines remain. This trip was not planned at all. We had cancelled our WDW 50th anniversary trip because I couldn't face huge crowds + covid and we went on 100% vaxxed cruise instead. While on the cruise, we found out that our favourite UK Rose and Crown bartender, Carl, was retiring on Monday 10/4. So, we grabbed a last minute DVC reservation at the Polynesian on Saturday 10/2 for 10/3-10/5 (there were actually plenty of choices!), changed our return flight to be out of Orlando and booked a car from Miami to Orlando. We did 1/2 day at the MK on Sunday 10/3, a full day at Epcot on 10/4 (Carl's last day) and a 1/2 day at AK on 10/5 before driving to MCO to go home.

The wait times were ... blissful! We never waited more than 25 minutes for anything. We did avoid the 7DMT, Pandora and Test Track. But everything else, including Frozen, Jungle Cruise and the Safari were all less than 25 minutes. Space Mountain, BTMR, Splash Mountain and Everest were all under 10 minutes.

We rode Remy. I missed the 7:00 am virtual queue but my DH got us in at 1:00 pm. It was cute and I'm looking forward to seeing it again. They loaded the car from back to front so we sat behind the people who were actually in line behind us. The woman in front of me had mouse ears on and they were VERY annoying and were in the way of me seeing the scenes. PLEASE take your ears off in rides and shows! They are bigger and taller than you think.

We saw the new Hall of Presidents show. I am pleased to be able to see the show again!

We caught Enchantment on 10/3. We watched from the hub, slightly to the right so we saw all the projections. We really liked the fireworks. I liked the how they would play a song and then include characters from multiple movies with the same general theme as the movie the song was from. My DH thought that they threw in the whole kitchen sink of intellectual property into the show. I was not a fan of Happily Ever After, so I consider this an improvement. I'll be interested to see how I feel about it after seeing it a few more times. The crowd was pretty intense there and we wore our mask the whole time.

We saw HarmoniUS on 10/4. We watched between Japan and Morocco. The crowd was light there. We wanted to see the round "stargate" ring, but I'm not sure that it really added anything. It was a little fuzzy even from our slightly off-center view. I'm not sure if it's sharp from dead on (Japan/USA). I could tell that much of what was shown on the ring was also shown elsewhere. The spot between the two gift shops at the head of the World Showplace was a ZOO. Much of it was roped off. I'm not sure if that was for fireworks parties/upsells or what. It was more crowded in Japan and the Torii gate looked like it might get in the way of the projections. We liked the show better than Enchantment, fewer characters and stories were stuffed into it and the music was better. The fireworks were better at the MK.

We saw the new AK show KiteTales. I really enjoyed it. The best viewing is from the stands near Nemo to see all the puppeteers. The puppets were super cute and the big kites were cool. We saw Baloo and King Louie. I read reviews later and agreed that part of the charm was watching the kites crash land, intentionally and otherwise. Baloo and Louie crashed intentionally in empty seats near Everest. Other smaller kites crashed in the water and one grouping got caught up on some rocks.

We saw the wreckage of Primeval Hurl in AK. It was sad.

Mask usage is down to inside resorts, buildings and rides/queues that are inside. No masks in BTMR queue until the FP merge point. No masks on Everest until you enter the last building. No masks on the safari at all. In the spaces that mask usage was required, compliance was very good. Last May you had to mask as soon as you crossed under the marquee sign for the ride even if the queue itself was outside.

I'll post some photos from my phone in another post.

 

[robinb]

KiteTails, King Louie


KiteTails, crash landed Baloo


Primeval Hurl, This Really Extincts!


Sad, sad, sad. The End is Near ...




HarmoniUS, Epcot




Enchantment, MK.

 

[jrsharp21]

Mask usage is down to inside resorts, buildings and rides/queues that are inside. No masks in BTMR queue until the FP merge point. No masks on Everest until you enter the last building. No masks on the safari at all. In the spaces that mask usage was required, compliance was very good. Last May you had to mask as soon as you crossed under the marquee sign for the ride even if the queue itself was outside..

When we were there 2 weeks ago, we experienced the same with BTMR for the most part. We rode it 4 times while we were there. The first three times, no mask until the FP merge, getting ready to go down the walkway to the loading area. But the last time we got on, we were walking through the queue near the part you can set off the explosions, one of the janitor CM's was walking outside the queue, stopped and point at me and told me to put my mask on. It perplexed me because herds of other people had walked by with no mask on or were behind me with no mask, but somehow he chose me to tell to put it on. It was very strange. The group I was with thought the same thing. Right away they asked "why just you"?

 

[BK2014]

I don’t mean to be a jerk but why world anyone wait 2 hours for food rather than leave and come back

Because they didn't know it would be a 2 hour wait. When mobile ordering was having problems on 10/1 it would accept the order, people would go to the restaurant, hit the "I'm Here, Prepare My Order" button without knowing that it was going to be two hours before their food was prepared. The app was not informing guests of the delay, and the helpfulness of the castmember varied from castmember to castmember.

 

[Best Aunt]

Because they didn't know it would be a 2 hour wait. When mobile ordering was having problems on 10/1 it would accept the order, people would go to the restaurant, hit the "I'm Here, Prepare My Order" button without knowing that it was going to be two hours before their food was prepared. The app was not informing guests of the delay, and the helpfulness of the castmember varied from castmember to castmember.

When you mobile order, at what point is your credit card charged? And what is the latest point at which you can cancel your order without being charged? Regardnig the people who waited a long time for the food that they mobile ordered - I thought that maybe once they hit "I'm Here, Prepare My Order" their credit card would be charged so they didn't want to leave without the food.

 

[luv2cheer92]

When you mobile order, at what point is your credit card charged? And what is the latest point at which you can cancel your order without being charged? Regardnig the people who waited a long time for the food that they mobile ordered - I thought that maybe once they hit "I'm Here, Prepare My Order" their credit card would be charged so they didn't want to leave without the food.

That last statement is correct, that is when you are charged. When you complete the order, but before hitting "I'm here", you have the option to cancel on the app. However, you can still cancel and get refunded after hitting I'm here by going up to one of the CMs at the restaurant, they can cancel your order for you at that point.

 

[BridgetR3]

Okay so the Primeval Whirl photos disturb me, especially for my teenage son who LOVES the ride. Please please tell me that those photos are taken through a wall/partition/covering/SOMETHING and that you can't just see it destroyed all over dinoland.......

 

[jrsharp21]

Okay so the Primeval Whirl photos disturb me, especially for my teenage son who LOVES the ride. Please please tell me that those photos are taken through a wall/partition/covering/SOMETHING and that you can't just see it destroyed all over dinoland.......

When we were there two weeks ago and they were starting the dismantle, there were no walls up. Not sure what the plans are for that area, but that whole carnival area needs to be re-themed.